Sonic Advance Game by Sonic Team/Dimps Reviewed by SonicGamer jdstof@aol.com Size: 64 megabits Save: battery Released: 2002 Works with: Gameboy Advance **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: Yes! Sonic finally made it to the Gameboy Advance! But what is this? A development team called Dimps is working on it, and not Sonic Team? Does this mean that Sonic Advance turned out to be a bad game? Of course not! Read the review to see why! **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: *Warning* Don't read if you already know the storyline of Sonic games. Okay, so like all other Sonic games, Dr. Eggman (or Dr. Robotnik) is trying to steal the chaos emeralds to turn all the animals into robots. So, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy have to go through a bunch of zones to collect the emeralds first and stop Dr. Eggman, all the while destroying Dr. Robotnik's badniks, which are robots with animals inside. ANYWAY, now that the main storyline of the game has been revealed, the actual gameplay will be revealed. You can play as 1 of 4 characters: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Each plays differently, and has their own special moves, some being old, and some being new. Sonic has the flash shield attack from Sonic 3, Tails can fly with his tails, Knuckles can glide and scale walls, and Amy can hit enemies with her hammer (there are more special moves, but there are too many to list here).Overall, there are 14 acts (levels) to the game, divided into 7 zones. Each level can either be run through really fast, or can be explored to find more rings and bonuses. What's great is the fact that when you decide to go fast, you go FAST. The game runs just as quickly as the genesis Sonic games did, only difference being a slight difference in acceleration to get your character moving (you get used to it though, trust me). The game is filled with loops, springs, and other nifty little elements of level design to keep your character moving at full speed. The game is also filled with some traps like spikes and enemies, so that you can't go fast all the time, making the game a bit harder. While exploring the levels, many secrets can be found too. This is the only way you'll get the most rings, and also find the secret springs that take you up to the special stages you play to get chaos emeralds. The bosses in the game are well designed, with relatively tough patterns and a bit of creativity at times, just like the bosses in the old Sonic games. The stages are all good too, all completely new, each with its own stage elements like anti-gravity (6th zone) or ropes you flip on (2nd zone) to make them all fun and different to play. What you just read is Normal mode, the main game. But there are other modes as well: VS, Time Attack, Options, and Tiny Chao Garden. I haven't tried VS yet, but I'll at least list what it says in the manual. With multi-cartridge link, you can either play Race where you race through the levels against your friends, do a Chao Hunt where whoever finds the most chao in a level wins, and there is also a team play mode where you play in teams against each other, and different characters help other characters (for example, while knuckles is gliding/climbing a wall, a teamate can ride on his back). In single cartridge VS mode, Collect the Rings is the game played, where the one who gets the most rings in a level wins. Time Attack mode is a mode where you get though the levels as fast as you can, and try to beat you best times. The times are saved with all 4 separate characters, so you can always try to beat your own records. Options basically just lets you toggle certain aspects of the game, like difficulty or whether you want a time limit (10 minutes) on beating a level or not, as well as a sound test. The Tiny Chao Garden is a virtual pet type thing where you use rings earned from the main game and the chao garden's mini games to buy your chao toys for it to play with, and fruit to feed it so that it levels up. The mini games in this mode are really cool too. There is a rock-paper-scissors minigame where you have to match the different icons at other icons so that the icon you put against the other icon causes it to dissapear (like launching a rock icon against a scissors icon). There is also a memory game where you have to match the fruits. I believe you can also connect the Gameboy Advance to the Gamecube with SA2: Battle to enter your Gameboy Advance Chao in the Chao races on the Gamecube game. I don't know much about this feature, so you'll just have to use your imagination. :) I suppose that one thing I should adress is the fact that the special stages to get the chaos emeralds are near impossible. The are not only hard to find, but they are really hard to beat. Of course, I won't take off for this because you can just use some codes and faqs to get around this, hehe. Overall, the gameplay is very solid and Sonic-esqe, with many features added on. A blast to play! Liked: Great gameplay that is fun and fast, just like the other Sonic games. You can either rush through the levels, or explore them to find secrets. I also like the fact that there are a decent amount of modes to play. You will always be trying to break your Time Attack records or playing the game to get more rings for the Tiny Chao Garden. Hated: The Special stages to earn the chaos emeralds are too hard. The game seems to sneak in a couple cheap shots as well to mess you up (usually spikes coming out of the ground). It isn't an issue when you get good at the game, but at first it could be frustrating. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: Smooth and sharp as glass. When the game gets fast, it runs incredibly smooth with no choppiness whatsoever. The colors are vibrant, and everything is easy to tell apart. The characters and other sprites are well done too, with nice looking anmation. Liked: Everything. It's all good. Hated: What? **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: The music is all cool music, some of it being relaxed, while some of it is more "jazzy". All of the music fits the levels perfectly, and is the kind of music that you want to use headphones on. Some of the tunes are from old Sonic games as well, like the invincibility tune from Sonic 1 on Genesis. The sound effects are great, with the jumping and ring sound effects being the same as the genesis Sonics. Liked: Great music that is nice to listen to and makes you want to play the game, with good sound effects to boot. Hated: ... **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: Perfect. When you press A, you jump, when you press B, you do a special move, etc. The control couldn't be better. The game design is good as well, with all the menus well done and easy to access. Liked: Everything controls great. Great menus too. Hated: Nothing, sir! **************************************************************************** Improve: I dunno, I guess more levels would be nice. RIYL: other Sonic games, platformers in general **************************************************************************** Final Words: A really good game that will satisfy any Sonic fan. It has a couple faults, but not enough to where I could give it a 4/5 stars in any area. This is pure Sonic, so those who don't like Sonic need not apply. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: ***** Sound/Music: ***** Play Control/Game Design: ***** Personal Opinion: ***** Total: 25/25, 100% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: Go to Normal Mode. Then press up, right, down, right, L, right, R, right, A. You should have selected Sonic and heard a chime while entering Sonic's level select. Then enter a level, and you will have Tails following Sonic. Also, if you have a gameshark, www.gameshark.com has some codes for this game.